Abstract:

The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been an integral part of education in most developed countries. As a result, there is enormous pressure on education institutions around the world to keep up with the pace of technological development. In Namibia, the implementation of ICT curriculum aimed at assisting learners and teachers to look for information, manage information and present information through ICT. Given these contributions, principals need to have sufficient knowledge of the use of ICT in order to support and implement the new technologies into school activities. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of principals on implementing ICT into school activities in the Khomas Education Region.
This study adopted a qualitative case study design to investigate the principals’
perceptions. Three secondary school principals whose secondary schools met the criteria of purposive sampling were selected to participate in the study. Research instrument that was found appropriate for this study was semi- structured interview. The data were analyzed by providing detailed descriptions of the setting, participants, and activities and categorization of coded pieces of data and grouping them into themes. The findings of this study indicated that principals in the Khomas Education Region have positive attitude towards ICT irrespective of challengers they face in managing the implementation ICT in school environment. The study found the principals were either computer illiterate or computer semi-literate. They were unable to act as instructional leaders in the implementation of ICT in teaching and learning. The study recommends,
among others, that principals should undergo through ICT professional development programmes, not only to make them computer literate but also to enable them to manage effectively and confidently implementation of ICT in schools.

Description:

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education.